Jean Alesi will race in the Indy 500

[FourWheelDrift]

crash.net said:

Elsewhere, Jean Alesi expressed safety concerns in his Lotus Fan Force United car after it emerged that he and HVM's Simona de Silvestro benefitted from a turbo boost exception to set improved times earlier this week. Without that advantage, Alesi was back down to 205.389mph (43.8193s) and de Silvestro to 205.009mph (43.9005s).

Oh dear, without the extra boost they are 15-18mph slower over the lap.

[McHaggis]

How can it be soooo slow? Fundamentally something wrong with the engine power?

[TheArchitect]

The Lotus engine deal is a complete farce. They shouldn't be there if they cannot compete on an level playing field considering its Americas top level open wheel series.

[10 Pence Short]

I saw Alesi is missing from the the latest times- has he called it a day?

[FourWheelDrift]

He was out on fast Friday, practice 7. 31st place.

1. #26 Marco Andretti (C) 227.540mph 39.5535s (36 laps)
2. #2 Ryan Briscoe (C) 226.835mph 39.6764s + 0.1229s (41 laps)
3. #3 Helio Castroneves (C) 226.716mph 39.6973s + 0.1438s (35 laps)
4. #28 Ryan Hunter-Reay (C) 226.400mph 39.7526s + 0.1991s (22 laps)
5. #9 Scott Dixon (H) 226.224mph 39.7836s + 0.2301s (60 laps)
6. #27 James Hinchcliffe (C) 225.974mph 39.8276s + 0.2741s (20 laps)
7. #25 Ana Beatriz (C) 225.653mph 39.8842s + 0.3307s (24 laps)
8. #4 JR Hildebrand (C) 225.571mph 39.8987s + 0.3452s (15 laps)
9. #50 Dario Franchitti (H) 225.370mph 39.9344s + 0.3809s (54 laps)
10. #11 Tony Kanaan (C) 225.322mph 39.9428s + 0.3893s (19 laps)
11. #12 Will Power (C) 225.288mph 39.9488s + 0.3953s (42 laps)
12. #5 EJ Viso (C) 225.137mph 39.9757s + 0.4222s (30 laps)
13. #67 Josef Newgarden (H) 225.021mph 39.9963s + 0.4428s (43 laps)
14. #83 Charlie Kimball (H) 224.964mph 40.0064s + 0.4529s (45 laps)
15. #19 James Jakes (H) 224.960mph 40.0071s + 0.4536s (53 laps)
16. #20 Ed Carpenter (C) 224.946mph 40.0096s + 0.4561s (49 laps)
17. #15 Takuma Sato (H) 224.825mph 40.0312s + 0.4777s (43 laps)
18. #38 Graham Rahal (H) 224.789mph 40.0375s + 0.4840s (47 laps)
19. #17 Sebastian Saavedra (C) 224.661mph 40.0604s + 0.5069s (16 laps)
20. #14 Mike Conway (H) 224.333mph 40.1190s + 0.5655s (42 laps)
21. #8 Rubens Barrichello (C) 224.272mph 40.1299s + 0.5764s (18 laps)
22. #18 Justin Wilson (H) 224.258mph 40.1324s + 0.5789s (43 laps)
23. #39 Bryan Clauson (H) 224.224mph 40.1384s + 0.5849s (52 laps)
24. #98 Alex Tagliani (H) 223.576mph 40.2547s + 0.7012s (40 laps)
25. #41 Wade Cunningham (H) 222.898mph 40.3773s + 0.8238s (30 laps)
26. #77 Simon Pagenaud (H) 222.736mph 40.4065s + 0.8530s (44 laps)
27. #99 Townsend Bell (H) 221.738mph 40.5885s + 1.0350s (45 laps)
28. #30 Michel Jourdain (H) 221.396mph 40.6511s + 1.0976s (12 laps)
29. #7 Sebastien Bourdais (C) 221.191mph 40.6888s + 1.1353s (58 laps)
30. #6 Katherine Legge (C) 219.430mph 41.0154s + 1.4619s (44 laps)
31. #64 Jean Alesi (L) 213.423mph 42.1697s + 2.6162s (40 laps)
32. #78 Simona de Silvestro (L) 212.516mph 42.3498s + 2.7963s (44 laps)




Live pole day session just started - http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

Live grid - http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/indy500/e...

[FourWheelDrift]

And live radio - http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/indy500/m...

[FourWheelDrift]

Looks like he may have pulled out at least for today's Pole Day.

He was due out after Ana Beatriz and Takuma Sato's T car, then followed by Ed Carpenter.

Beatriz has been out and Carpenter has just gone out, Alesi didn't show.

Also puzzling is why Tony Kanaan has DQ'd his 225.100 5th best time so far. If he qualifies next week he won't be able to be that high up and no one else is going quicker. Dixon and Franchiitti are only 9th/10th with 223mph averages and they haven't scrubbed their laps.

[FourWheelDrift]

FourWheelDrift said:

Also puzzling is why Tony Kanaan has DQ'd his 225.100 5th best time so far. If he qualifies next week he won't be able to be that high up and no one else is going quicker. Dixon and Franchiitti are only 9th/10th with 223mph averages and they haven't scrubbed their laps.

Just been reported his car failed a post qualifying technical inspection.

[FourWheelDrift]

Alesi has gone out, 31st and slowest so far. ave 211mph

[ady_GTi]

Pretty impressed with Rubens lap. Chevy seems to have the upper hand so far.

Was expecting Alesi to be closer to Simona than hes managed today was fairly close during the week.

[FourWheelDrift]

I think for some reason not mentioned during the break after the first runs they put up previous practice times as Ana Beatriz was suddenly 2nd quickest and Alesi had a time logged. I thought that was 2nd runs but it's reverted back to the qualy times and Alesi is not on the list now.

[ady_GTi]

Yeah i noticed that, pretty confusing! Big hit for ed!

[Mini1275]

He qualified, just:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/99741

Autosport said:

Jean Alesi will be on the grid for this weekend's Indianapolis 500 after formally qualifying for the race on Bump Day.

Both Alesi (Fan Force United) and fellow Lotus-powered runner Simona de Silvestro (HVM) made the field after completing the formalities of Bump Day qualifying, which is reserved for the cars that missed out on the top 24 places on the previous qualifying day. Had any late entries arrived to challenge for one of the 33 places, the Lotuses could potentially have been knocked out of the event.

"Now I can breathe," said Alesi. "It's a big relief for me to finally get into this race. I have wanted to do this race ever since I was young.

"Of course, I am disappointed because I don't have the car I thought I would have, but it was all we could get, and we took it. It's frustrating to not have the same speed as the others. I am a professional, I have passion inside of me. I want to do the maximum that I can, with the car that I have."

Alesi will start from the rear of the grid after posting the slowest time of the day; the former Formula 1 star finishing up with an average speed almost 17mph slower than that of polesitter Ryan Briscoe.

Quickest of the Bump Day runners was Dragon's Sebastien Bourdais, whose team switched from Lotus to Chevrolet power last week.

17MPH down on average, surely that's getting quite close to just being dangerous?.

[McHaggis]

Mini1275 said:

17MPH down on average, surely that's getting quite close to just being dangerous?.

Well, if it was F1, he'd just be inside 107% (would be 42.322) - though on an oval I'd have thought it is too big a gap.

[FourWheelDrift]

The other racers will be able to negotiate a much slower car on track, they've all raced with Milka Dunno before.

[FourWheelDrift]

Basically speaking it's a 33 car maximum grid and only 33 cars attempted qualifying. With no one in danger of not qualifying he only had to complete the 4 laps as there's no minimum speed requirement.

[FourWheelDrift]

They have uploaded Carpenters qualifying crash, he was absolutely fine but there were thousands of dollars worth of improvements done to the car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga1kdQAIdHY

[Mini1275]

FourWheelDrift said:

They have uploaded Carpenters qualifying crash, he was absolutely fine but there were thousands of dollars worth of improvements done to the car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga1kdQAIdHY

Good to see he's okay though.

I'm surprised by how much debri is thrown everywhere after that shunt.

I know you're always going to get debri after a crash but they are pretty big pieces flying around (the side-pod etc).

I know the pieces are only light but I wouldn't want to hit them at 220MPH.

[hornet]

Good effort by Rubens in tenth. The whole Alesi thing has become a nonsense. He has no chance of a result and is going to spend the whole race getting in the way. Wonder how many laps before he decides to park it with "issues"?